The present invention relates to a constellation of small, airborne communications platforms, and more particularly, to a plurality of small, lighter-than-air communications platforms spaced-apart and floating in the stratospheric layer of the Earth""s atmosphere over a contiguous geographic area.
Until recently, all communications satellites were located on one orbit called the geosynchronous arc, which is located 22,300 miles above the Earth""s equator. Since international treaties required satellites to be spaced two degrees apart, there were only 180 sites on geosynchronous orbit. An optimally-designed three-stage chemical rocket typically must be 94% propellant at launch to reach geosynchronous orbit, which, after allocating about 5.6% of the weight for the rocket, only leaves about 0.4% of the initial launch weight for the satellite. To put this in perspective, a typical 3,000 lb. automobile with the same performance would only be able to carry one 200 lb. person, would need a 8,400 gallon fuel tank, and would be junked after one trip! Finally, although the NASA space shuttle can service a few very low orbit satellites at great expense, most satellites cannot be serviced or upgraded after being launched.
Currently, since there are a limited number of sites on the geosynchronous orbit, geosynchronous satellites are growing in size and performance, now being able to broadcast television signals directly to homes. Recently, additional satellite networks have been deployed that do not require a geosynchronous orbit. All of these new networks have launched smaller communications satellites into much lower orbits where there are an unlimited number of sites. Because the satellites required for a network are more numerous and because the satellites are smaller, up to 8 satellites per rocket have been launched. Although satellites have become smaller and more numerous, there are still no xe2x80x9cpersonal satellitesxe2x80x9d and no mass producers of consumer products in the satellite industry today.
It might be estimated that a network of microsatellites in low Earth orbit and ground equipment to accommodate the tracking, transmission, reception, signal handoff among the plurality of microsatellites and necessary system network for a voice system would cost at least $3 billion to deploy. Within four years of deploying a system, each one of five million subscribers might be expected to invest as much as $3,000 in the equipment, which results in a total combined investment by the users in the new equipment of about $15 billion. The cost of deploying a smaller system of low Earth orbit advanced messaging satellites might be estimated at about $475 million. Such a system might be expected to serve two to three million subscribers, each with user equipment costing $300-$ 1,000. Thus, the total investments by the users for their equipment may be at least $600 million.
There is currently an industry involving radiosondes for purposes of gathering weather information. Radiosondes are the instrument packages launched on weather balloons to gather weather data. Radiosondes are launched from a network of sites around the world at noon and at midnight Greenwich Mean Time each day. The weather service radiosondes collect temperature, humidity, pressure and wind data as they rise from the surface of the Earth to approximately 100,000 feet during a two-hour flight. This data is then input in atmospheric models that are run on supercomputers. The information gathered from the network of ascending radiosondes is critical in predicting the weather. Most countries of the world are bound by treaty to launch radiosondes from designated sites and to share the data with other countries. Currently there are about 800,000 radiosondes launched each year throughout the world. This number represents the 997 global weather stations launching two radiosondes per day, 365 days per year (727,000) plus a small number of radiosondes launched for military and research purposes. About 18% of radiosondes are recovered, reconditioned and reclaimed, resulting in new production of about 650,000 weather-gathering radiosondes per year.
The location systems currently used to track weather balloons are either being deactivated (Omega, beginning before the year 2000, and Loran-C, shortly after the year 2000) or are so old that the operation and maintenance is becoming prohibitively expensive (radars and radiotheodolites). Changes in radiosonde systems are usually very slow, since meteorologists study climatic trends by comparing data collected over decades. Thus, they are very leery of any changes that may introduce new biases into data as it is collected. This is evident from the fact that major users, like the U.S. National Weather Service (NWS) still use analogue radiosondes tracked by radiotheodolites when digital, navaid sondes have been around for many years. Tightening of governmental budgets have made some users unable to pay for new technology required. There presently is a push in the sonde marketplace to convert to using the Global Positioning System (GPS) for wind tracking on radiosondes. From 1995 to 1998, the NWS tried and failed to get the U.S. Congress to fund a program to develop a GPS tracking system for the U.S. Observation Network. This inability to obtain the necessary newer technology to replace old and unsupportable radiosonde infrastructure is occurring simultaneously with the reallocation of the radiosonde""s RF spectrum to commercial uses. Radiosondes have traditionally transmitted at 400 MHZ for navaid sondes and 1680 MHZ for radiotheodolite sondes. The 400 MHZ band may be auctioned off by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States for simultaneous use by commercial services. Thus, interference is increasing and sondes may be forced to use narrower bandwidths with digital downlinks instead of the wide bands with analogue downlinks still in common use.
Very large and expensive NASA balloons have been individually launched and maintained at a floating altitude for extended periods of time. These balloons carry hundreds of pounds of equipment and cost tens of thousands of dollars each. The single balloons do not have the capability of line-of-sight continuous coverage of extended geographic areas because of drifting.
Personal communications services (PCS) is a new category of digital services that the FCC started auctioning spectrum for in 1994. PCS is split into two categories: broad band and narrow band PCS. The broad band category is primarily for voice services and PCS broad band phones now compete with traditional cellular phones. The narrow band category is for advanced messaging, which is essentially two-way paging. The paging industry sees advanced messaging as being the mobile extension of one""s e-mail account, just as a cellular phone has been the mobile extension of one""s desktop phone. Nationwide narrow band PCS (NPCS) was the first spectrum ever auctioned by the FCC. About 30 regional and nationwide NPCS licenses have been auctioned and sold to private commercial ventures. The fact that the spectrum was auctioned is significant in that there are fewer restrictions on the use of this spectrum than on the use of traditional spectrum licensed from the FCC. Before auctions, the FCC granted spectrum on a piecemeal basis, and companies had to prove that they were using the airwaves for the xe2x80x9cpublic good.xe2x80x9d Usually there was very specific federal regulation on how the frequency could be used. Since companies paid for their PCS licenses, they essentially own the spectrum. The FCC imposed only minimal regulations to prevent systems from interfering with other carriers"" and other countries"" systems. Additionally, the FCC and Industry Canada reached what is known as a Terrestrial Radio Communication Agreement and Arrangement in which Canada allocated the same frequencies for NPCS with the same channel structure as the auctioned spectrum for the NPCS in the United States. This made cross-boarder NPCS possible and in 1996, at least one paging system company was granted an NPCS license in Canada to operate on the same frequencies as its U.S. licensee. Mexico also has specified the same channel spacing as used in the United States.
One of the goals of the FCC is to encourage providing radio frequency (RF) communications services to consumers in rural areas at an affordable price. This market has been largely ignored by the larger communications companies because of the diminishing return on investment in providing wireless communications to sparsely populated areas. These wireless services include paging, advanced messaging, telemetry, voice, etc. Although both voice and messaging services are available to rural areas using satellite systems, the costs are generally in the thousands of dollars per unit and well out of reach of most consumers. In addition satellite systems have problems providing services in urban areas because they lack the signal strength necessary for providing building penetration.
The present invention overcomes drawbacks of prior communications satellites, by using small and relatively inexpensive microelectronics to incorporate most of the functions provided by existing communications satellites in small, lighter-than-air communications platforms. In particular, a plurality of lighter-than-air balloons forming a constellation are designed to carry microelectronic communications equipment into a layer of the Earth""s atmosphere called the stratosphere. The weight of these platforms is approximately 100 to 1,000 times less than the micro-satellites currently launched into non-geosynchronous orbits. For convenient reference, the airborne communications platforms or balloons carrying a payload of electronic communications and control equipment have sometimes been referred to herein as xe2x80x9cstratospheric nanosatellitesxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cSNSxe2x80x9d for short. In the metric system, the xe2x80x9cnanoxe2x80x9d prefix signifies units 1,000 times smaller than the xe2x80x9cmicroxe2x80x9d prefix. The SNS invention eliminates the need for a rocket to propel the satellite into orbit. Synchronized airborne launching of a plurality of the SNS platforms at spaced-apart geographical locations provides a low cost constellation of satellites. The SNS platforms rise after launch to a controlled, adjustable altitude where they migrate over the geographic area according to atmospheric and the stratospheric weather conditions and particularly the winds. The SNS platforms may be raised or lowered in altitude by gas venting or ballast drop in order to catch prevailing winds favorable to keep the SNS platforms evenly spaced apart. The platforms are caused to rapidly descend when no longer needed. Additional launches of additional platforms fill excessive gaps occurring in the constellation.
Existing user equipment designed for terrestrial wireless communications can work with the SNS system of the present invention. This is not the case in the traditional communications satellite industry, since either the communications satellites are very far from the user (more than 22,000 miles for geosynchronous satellites) making the signal too weak without specialized user equipment, or the satellites travel at high speeds relative to the users on the ground (more than about 36,000 mph for low earth orbit satellites) causing frequency errors in the receiver. The SNS platform is, at most, about 175 miles (280 kilometers) from the ground user, depending upon the altitude and the radial coverage range from the particular platform among the plurality of platforms covering the geographic area. Moreover, the airborne platforms move at speeds approximating the speed of an automobile (between about zero and 80 mph at their float altitude). Compatibility with existing wireless communications systems is a significant advantage because when deploying a new communications system, the user equipment investment is always the largest total investment required.
In contrast to the large deployment and new equipment costs for orbiting satellite systems, the present invention provides a low cost alternative that does not require new subscriber equipment. Thus, a benefit of the SNS System is an advanced messaging SNS network that is compatible with standard one-way and two-way pagers already in existence and already in use with tower-based transceiver networks. Even without considering deploying of the SNS system, market analysts predict 35 million users will be carrying compatible, standard two-way pager equipment by the year 2003. At, for example, $100/unit, this represents an investment by users of over $3.5 billion. These users can receive the enhanced coverage of the inventive SNS platform network as an extension of their present service simply by electing to pay the monthly and incremental usage fees. There are no up-front costs for new user equipment or training and no need to change the user""s habits and burden them with carrying more than one pager or other communications device as is the case with current satellite pagers.
Furthermore, the inventive SNS system, when performing advanced messaging, uses a communications protocol or pager protocol that is being adopted internationally. International opportunities for the new system are at least equal to the U.S. potential. The SNS System may utilize other popular paging protocols as well. The system also has uses beyond personal paging for other communications, remote imaging, infrared scanning, equipment tracking and weather data collection services.
It will also be beneficial for the National Weather Service (NWS) to consider utilizing the current SNS invention as a replacement system capable of providing the NWS with required information during the ascent of SNS platforms. GPS information available from the SNS Platform could provide the desired wind information the NWS needs but is unable to afford. Existing NWS launching facilities might even be used as SNS launch, tracking and communications sites. After the ascent and transmission of weather data to the NWS, the platform would then be controlled to float at a regulated altitude and to provide other commercial communications services. The NWS sondes could be removably attached and dropped as ballast after the ascent is complete and the desired information therefrom has been transmitted to the NWS. The attached radiosondes could use exactly the same sensors utilized in the current radiosondes in order to keep the data consistant with current radiosonde data.
The inventive SNS network is uniquely designed to cover large areas and to use dedicated frequencies on a national, and ideally, on an international basis, between bordering countries. It is beneficial to allocate nationwide, or ideally international dedicated frequencies to the SNS system due to the large coverage circles of each of the SNS airborne platforms. Overlapping use of the same frequency without time multiplexing the signals would most likely cause interference at the receiver. The System will optimally work within a range of frequencies designated the xe2x80x9cNarrowband Personal Communications Servicesxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cNPCSxe2x80x9d spectrum. Moreover, the NPCS industry in the U.S. has generally agreed on a standard two-way messaging protocol called xe2x80x9cReFLEXxe2x80x9d (ReFLEX is a trademark of Motorola, Inc.). ReFLEX is a protocol that uses a Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) system. The ReFLEX protocol is an extension of the FLEX protocol designed by Motorola and is a synchronous protocol where there are 128 frames in a four-minute cycle. The start of each frame is coordinated nationwide using GPS technology for timing. This will allow a single frequency to be shared between the SNS network of the present invention and existing terrestrial satellite networks by simply allocating a certain number of frames to each network during each four-minute cycle. Thus, the disclosed SNS system can either operate on its own dedicated frequencies or interoperate with terrestrial systems on the same channel and never transmit on top of each other. This is unique to TDMA and is preferably incorporated into the new SNS system.
While the TDMA system is used by the preferred FLEX and ReFLEX protocols, the SNS invention may also work using other systems such as Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and even Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) systems. Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) spreads the digitized data over an entire available bandwidth. Multiple data streams are laid over each other on the channel (sometimes referred to as spread spectrum technique), with each datastream assigned a unique sequence code. While the unique sequence code can provide a very efficient use of bandwidth, it nevertheless is highly complex and expensive. The FDMA system assigns each datastream its own frequency. Although this provides a system that is fairly easy to implement and has a low cost from an equipment standpoint, it nevertheless results in a highly inefficient use of bandwidth.
ReFLEX has 128 discreet time slots or frames in a four minute period. The SNS system may use its own frequencies or it may share the time slots with a partnering paging carrier. The TDMA system used by ReFLEX provides efficient use of bandwidth. It has some complexity and associated equipment cost. However, the complexity continues to be more easily handled with high speed microprocessors and the equipment cost continues to be reduced.
On one frequency, the 128 time slots or frames that the ReFLEX protocol breaks each four minute cycle into, can be shared by the SNS system with other paging antennas and terrestrial towers that may have overlapping geographic coverage. A single pager may be able to receive the broadcast from multiple platforms and terrestrial towers, but because each platform or tower with adjoining coverage is allotted a specific frame or specific frames, the pager xe2x80x9chearsxe2x80x9d only one transmitter in each time slot. It is an object of the present invention to provide a construction of communications platforms that may be dynamically assigned new frames in which to transmit as the platforms drift in order to make sure that a pager receives transmissions from only one transmitter in the same frame.
Also it is an object of the present invention that the time slots may be dynamically reassigned so that at any given time or location one platform may have a greater number of available time slots than another in order to provide more capacity to platforms that may need higher capacity. Dynamic frame allocation (or dynamic capacity allocation), is a complex task. At any time that more frames are allotted to one platform, all other platforms that have overlapping coverage with that one platform lose access to the frames that are assigned and therefore lose capacity. Nevertheless, the ability to have dynamic frame allocation will facilitate maximizing capacity of the entire system by efficiently using all available time slots to their greatest capacity while minimizing allocation of time slots or frames in geographic areas with low communications capacity requirements.
Also although the ReFLEX two-way paging protocol using TDMA as described above is preferred, it is also an object of the present invention that the SNS may also be compatible with other pager protocols. For example, three other primary pager protocols include FLEX, POCSAG, and ERMES. The FLEX protocol is the one-way paging system that is the predecessor of ReFLEX. POCSAG is an older paging standard for one-way communications and is less efficient. Nevertheless, most pagers in the U.S. are still POCSAG compatible even though FLEX has higher noise immunity, a higher throughput and is becoming the standard in the U.S. and abroad (except Europe) for one-way paging. The ERMES paging protocol is the one-way paging European standard (currently governmentally enforced). The SNS system could also be appropriately configured in its circuitry to handle communications according to the ERMES protocol and therefore is adaptable to European usage as well.
In contrast to most voice and paging networks where many different protocols are used over a wide range of frequencies, NPCS contains a near contiguous set of nationwide frequencies in which nationwide narrowband PCS licensees have adopted the FLEX/ReFLEX protocol.
The present inventive SNS system benefits from a nationwide consistency of frequencies and protocols so that it can relatively easily operate across all NPCS channels owned by any or all of the nationwide carriers if need be. Minimal governmental regulation of the NPCS bands also allow the new SNS system, which was unknown when the NPCS regulations were drafted, to operate in the NPCS bands without violating current regulations. Since the NPCS licensees essentially own the frequencies purchased at auction, and the inventive SNS system can compatibly use the same frequencies with permission from the purchaser, additional licenses from the FCC may not be needed. This unique feature also saves two or three years in start-up time that it can sometimes take in order to pursue separate licenses.
As discussed briefly above, in addition to minimizing the regulatory hurdles, the new SNS network has a huge advantage in that it does not require new, specialized user equipment. It is expected that there may be as many as between 6-15 million units of compatible user equipment operating off existing terrestrial networks. These can simply be added to the new SNS system using inexpensive system programming and thereby receive the expanded, more complete, coverage of the contiguous geographic area provided by the constellation of floating communications platforms according to the present invention. To the NPCS carrier, the new system can provide complete communication coverage, particularly coverage in remote non-metropolitan areas.
Since existing paging equipment owners and users may acquire the expanded coverage provided by the present invention through their existing carrier, the decision to expand coverage can be as simple as checking a box on their monthly bill. They could keep their current paging company, and simply add the benefit of remote area coverage provided by the SNS. No new equipment is needed and no start-up time is needed to learn the features of a new electronic device. There is simply improved coverage for the user without changing equipment.
A very important benefit of the inventive SNS network is the significant improvement in complete remote area geographic coverage. Currently, wireless data coverage is a patchwork of covered high density population areas, primarily around metropolitan areas. The SNS network works cooperatively with the existing coverage areas and fills in all the low density population and thus low communication traffic areas all using the same subscriber device. The governmental regulations governing NPCS systems require minimum system build-outs for all licensees. For example, by about 1999, a nationwide licensee providing NPCS must service at least 37.5% of the U.S. population or 750,000 square kilometers, and by the year 2004, a NPCS licensee must service at least 75% of the U.S. population, or 1,500,000 square kilometers. Since the population is very concentrated, prior systems have been required to build towers for coverage over a very small percentage of the total landmass. In fact, the minimum area requirement for the 1999 and for the 2004 population service requirements correspond to approximately 8% and 16% of the total U.S. landmass, respectively, because of the high population density in U.S. cities. For example, covering 90% of the population requires a carrier to build out only about 20% of the country""s total landmass. Servicing areas of low population density is more expensive for prior systems since tower transmitter/transceivers have a short range requiring much more equipment per potential customer. Thus, few prior carriers have systems that cover more than 90% of the population because of the diminishing returns. Many established wireless data carriers are built out only to about 70%-80%.
The present invention is designed to provide substantially 100% coverage and can be compatibly combined with existing wireless carrier systems and networks such that the high density build-out by prior paging system carriers handles the high population density geographic areas and the low population density or remote areas, wherever they might be located within the contiguous geographic area, are handled by the inventive SNS system. The SNS system is complementary to high density tower paging systems. Thus, although the SNS system has a lower total signal handling capacity when compared to high population density tower systems, it provides complete geographic coverage so that subscribers in or traveling through remote areas are provided with the additional coverage of the SNS system. Subscribers are always within the range of paging services or other compatible communications services using a single device. The SNS system may also reallocate capacity on a regional basis by launching more SNS platforms or by reallocating the frequency use dynamically among the neighboring platforms.
The SNS system also has uses beyond personal paging for other communications including voice, remote imaging, infrared scanning, equipment tracking and weather data collection services. Broadband PCS (BPCS) phones that have come to market in the past year all offer an advanced messaging service call Short Messaging Service (SMS). The SNS system could page a subscriber""s phone when the phone was out of the BPCS phone service area. BPCS voice service may also be possible with an SNS system. Another potential application for SNS technology is the remote imaging market. Governments, city planners, farmers, environmentalists, mapmakers, and real estate developers all rely on aerial or satellite photos. Worldwide, this market is over $1.4 billion. Since an SNS is over twenty times closer to the subject than a satellite, SNS can achieve one-meter resolution with only a 0.75-inch diameter lens. Weather data from the extended stay in the stratosphere can be collected and reported by the SNS platform as current radiosondes do not have the capability of maintaining a float altitude.
The preferred embodiment of the present invention is a constellation of small airborne communications platforms with a ground network of launching, tracking and communications terminals. Although the entire system is described primarily in terms of communications that are in the form of a paging system, other communications such as voice communications, emergency road service, search and rescue, emergency medical, remote imaging, environmental monitoring, industrial and utility monitoring, remote asset management, photo data, IR scanning, equipment tracking, boxcar and container tracking, vehicle security, personal security, hazardous materials, customs and international shipping security, child security, wildlife tracking, personal messaging, communications for the handicapped, SCADA, trucking communications and shipment tracking, and many other adapted communications might be easily included. As it is used here, paging includes traditional one-way paging as well as newer advanced messaging services (such as two-way paging and voice messaging). The airborne constellation of communications platforms and ground support system extends the limited coverage of current paging networks to provide complete communications coverage over an entire contiguous geographic area. For example, in the U.S., it provides true, nationwide coverage. The ground based tower systems already in place provide the in-building coverage needed in the urban areas while the SNS System provides coverage of the low population density, rural areas. Thus a subscriber can have complete nationwide coverage using the same handheld paging device. The inventive system does this by providing a constellation of evenly-spaced, high altitude, airborne communications platforms, for example, balloon-carried paging transceivers, as opposed to the traditional systems of ground-based communications towers covering only a limited area or, as opposed to very expensive orbiting, high or low altitude, satellite communications systems.
To form the constellation of airborne communications platforms, paging transceivers are attached to lighter-than-air carriers, such as high altitude balloons similar to those used by the National Weather Service (NWS) yet modified to provide for regulated adjustable altitude control using methods such as gas venting and ballast dropping. The lighter-than-air carrier or balloon and the attached communications devices have been referred to in this application as stratospheric nanosatellite platforms (SNS platforms). For coverage of a contiguous geographic area consisting of the continental United States, SNS platforms may be launched periodically at regular intervals or as needed from approximately 50 to 100 sites throughout the United States. These launch sites may be selected for launching the balloon-carried transceiver to rise to a regulated floating stratospheric altitude of approximately 60,000 to 140,000 feet. Computer regulated altitude control and computerized tracking are utilized. The SNS platforms are regulated to maintain a desired altitude within a predetermined altitude range, as, for example, in the stratosphere over the Earth, as they drift along with existing wind currents. New SNS platforms may be launched to fill any gaps that may occur in the coverage as the platforms drift at different speeds, as they loose buoyancy or as they occasionally burst or malfunction. New SNS platforms may also be launched to provide additional communications capacity as the need arises. Newly launched SNS platforms can collect, record and transmit meteorological data during the ascent to the regulated altitude. Such data might be beneficially communicated via radio to the ground for use by the National Weather Service (NWS). The process of modeling and thereby predicting the coverage of the network of SNS platforms on a continuous basis is a complex task due to the constantly changing weather conditions. This task is facilitated by also using the weather data recorded and/or transmitted to the ground for predicting the movement of individual platforms relative to each other and relative to ground launching and tracking terminals. This data may also be used to control the altitude of individual SNS platforms to catch favorable prevailing winds to help fill gaps in coverage. Each floating satellite at a stratospheric altitude will have line-of-sight radio communication coverage at a radius of approximately 175 miles (280 km) in all directions from antenna suspended below and forming a part of the communications platform.
Ground-based support for the plurality of SNS platforms forming the constellation consists of at least one network operations center (NOC) and a plurality of launching and tracking terminals. The NOC is preferably a high speed, high volume, computing, communications and operations center for the SNS system. The NOC may be in charge of all controllable aspects of every communications SNS platform""s flight and operation. These controls include platform launches, floating altitudes, tracking, all paging communications and control signal transmissions, and communications with partnering paging companies. Typically, the SNS ground terminals include launch facilities, tracking and communications equipment and communication antennas. The co-located launch facilities and ground terminals may also advantageously correspond with existing locations of the approximately seventy NWS balloon launch facilities that are designed to monitor weather conditions nationwide. Similar Weather stations also exist and are maintained by treaties essentially world wide. These ground terminals may be automated. Portable or mobile launching and tracking ground terminals can also be used when necessary to fill in anticipated coverage gaps that may develop between the overlapping circular coverage patterns of the floating platforms. These portable or mobile launching and tracking ground terminals may be moved seasonally to provide additional launch sites as the stratospheric winds change on a seasonal basis. These would most likely be positioned along the coastline or the edges of the coverage area. The ground terminals can advantageously track a number of SNS platforms floating near their location and can provide the uplink and downlink of all communications, including paging and control data, to each platform within range of the terminal. Paging signals from a subscribing paging company may be sent to the SNS system through the NOC. The NOC determines which SNS platform is currently over the addressed pager and sends the paging message to the ground terminal that is tracking that SNS platform. The ground terminal receives the paging message from the NOC and relays it to the SNS platform. The SNS platform then transmits the paging message down to the individual pager. Any message sent by a two-way pager is received by the nearest SNS platform and relayed down to the ground terminal. The ground terminal sends the message to the NOC, which relays the message to the appropriate subscribing paging carrier. The NOC also keeps track of all billing information and subscriber location information. The SNS system is advantageously designed to be fully compatible with FLEX (one-way pagers) and also ReFLEX (two-way pagers) without modification to the pagers. The launch facilities, whether co-located with NWS launch facilities or separately located at other selected ground locations, may consist of a fully automated launcher and ground terminal. One ground terminal may control multiple SNS platforms at one time. Land lines, satellite links, platform-to-platform, balloon-to-balloon, or other network communications coupling from one ground location to another may be used to connect the plurality of launch sites and ground terminals to each other or the NOC.